Coverings made with elastomeric materials are well known and find many useful applications. One such application is known as the "latex glove." Latex gloves are made from a variety of elastomers and during the glove-making process the elastomers are normally in their latex form. Latex gloves are often desirable because they can be made light, thin, flexible, tightly-fitting and substantially impermeable to some liquids and gases such as liquid water and water vapor.
The characteristics of latex make latex gloves useful in medical applications, and particularly useful as surgical gloves. Surgeons are required to perform delicate operations with their hands while wearing latex gloves. Surgical operations often last for hours. To maintain accurate control over instruments with their hands, surgeons must wear relatively thin latex gloves which fit closely to their skin so that they can grip and feel the instruments in their hand almost as if they were not wearing gloves at all. Thus, conventional latex surgical gloves are thin and undersized so as to fit tightly onto the surgeons' hands. However, conventional latex surgical gloves, which are often made of natural rubber, are very resilient and, when stretched to fit about the wearer's hand, apply pressure to the wearer's hand. With conventional latex surgical gloves, this pressure is not appreciably released until the wearer removes the gloves. The pressure applied by conventional latex surgical gloves restricts the blood vessels in the hands of the wearer and restricts the movement of the wearer's fingers. Thus, when worn for an extended period of time, the pressure applied by conventional latex surgical gloves tends to numb and fatigue the wearer's hands and causes general discomfort for the wearer. During a long surgical operation, this can cause surgeons some difficulty in controlling instruments with their hands.
Another application for elastomeric coverings is the condom. As is well known, condoms are useful in preventing the spread of sexually-transmitted diseases. The characteristics of latex are also well suited for condoms. Like surgical gloves, condoms are made with latex so they can be made light, thin, tightly-fitting and substantially impermeable to liquids. Condoms are thin and undersized to fit tightly about the penis so that they remain in position about the penis during sexual intercourse. However, as with conventional latex gloves, conventional condoms are often made with natural rubber, are very resilient and, when stretched to fit about the wearer's penis, apply pressure to the wearer's penis. The pressure applied by conventional latex condoms causes discomfort for the wearer, thereby discouraging condom use.
Accordingly, there is a need for an elastomeric material which is suitable as a covering, but which relaxes after being stretched about an object. More particularly, there is a need for a latex surgical glove that, when stretched to fit the wearer's hand, conforms to fit closely about the wearer's hand and then relaxes to relieve the pressure applied by the glove to the wearer's hands and give the wearer greater comfort and greater sensitivity in performing delicate tasks. In addition there is a need for a latex condom that has those same characteristics.